An expanding network of concerned individuals known as Occupy Monsanto has emerged over the past 8 months staging numerous protests at companies connected to the global trade of genetically engineered foods, also known as GMOs. The network announced today that on September 17, 2012 protests will begin for an entire week in St. Louis, home of the Monsanto Corporation, and across the US including California where voters will decide if they will label GMOs this election and worldwide in Argentina, Canada, Germany, India, Philippines, and other countries where concern over GMO impact on the environment and human health is growing.

The protests will vary in size and nature but are unified in pushing back GMO food into the lab from which it came. An interactive map with times, dates and locations of the 60+ protests can be found at http://occupy-monsanto.com/genetic-crimes-unit/.

Occupy Monsanto means to confront the industrial agriculture system head-on. Some protests could result in widespread arrests of people who choose to engage in non-violent civil disobedience. Despite the peaceful nature of these planned protests, organizers are concerned about surveillance of Occupy-Monsanto.com by the US Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement agencies worldwide. Nevertheless Occupy Monsanto protests will feature costumes made of bio-hazmat protective gear that can also protect against pepper spray from police who have routinely attacked occupy protests in the past year.

“There is something wrong when a chemical manufacturer, the same company who made Agent Orange, controls the US food supply,” says Jaye Crawford, a member of the Genetic Crimes Unit in Atlanta, Georgia that has planned a week of events. Info: http://occupy-monsanto.com/atlanta-gcu-schedule-of-events/.

“Wall Street and the American political elite have underestimated and even ignored our potential to effect rational policy change on GMOs which would include labeling for GMOs and restrictions on GMO cultivation,” says Gene Etic an anti-GMO campaigner based in Washington, DC. “If Occupy Monsanto’s anti-GMO actions are successful, after September 17 the media and increasingly more voters will ask tough questions about these experimental GMO crops especially within the context of the Presidential election, as that office holds the power to determine American food policy,” says Etic.

“People are stirred by the evidence that GMO foods compromise human health,” says Rica Madrid, a member of the Genetic Crime Unit of Occupy Monsanto. “Politicians and their sponsoring corporations ignore public outcry over GMOs to protect huge profits over health. Since GMOs’ introduction to the food supply in the mid 1990’s, food allergies have expanded according to Center for Disease Control data,” says Madrid.

“By purchasing influence via massive campaign donations, Monsanto ensures the essential duties of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are neglected. One example of this corporate coup is President Obama’s appointment of Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice-President and legal council for the chemical company, to head the FDA’s food safety efforts despite his obvious conflict of interest,” says Ariel Vegosen, a member of the Genetic Crimes Unit. She adds, “Monsanto is the biggest maker of genetically engineered crops so it must be stopped before it is too late to shift to healthy organic agriculture practices as a result of widespread genetic contamination by GMOs. ‘Coexistence’ as defined by the USDA of Organic and GMO crops is a myth.”

“At the US State Department it’s apparent Monsanto has duped leaders in Africa to ask the US for foreign aid in the form of GMO technology and equipment,” says Monsanto shareholder Adam Eidinger who last year walked from New York to the White House in Washington, DC with hundreds of other food activists to demand labeling of GMO foods. “The generous use of US tax dollars, endorsed by the likes of rock-star Bono and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a former legal council for Monsanto, is actually another taxpayer funded subsidy for Monsanto’s pesticide and herbicide hungry crops.”

Occupy Monsanto will be heard at the offices and facilities linked in the GMO food system. In St. Louis a major anti-GMO conference will take place in the same location as the ’12th International Symposium on GMO Safety.’ A lead organizer of the conference is Barbara Chicherio who believes, “Monsanto’s push to control agriculture and what people are eating poses a great threat not only to consumers in the US, but to farmers and communities throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia.” Info on the conference is at http://gmofreemidwest.org/.

Media may arrange interviews with Occupy-Monsanto.com by contacting Adam Eidinger at 202-744-2671 or write to gmo@Occupy-Monsanto.com Visit http://Occupy-Monsanto.com for more information and to see video and photos of protests from earlier this year. All images and video are available for free and unrestricted use by members of the media.

"Controlling Our Food" ; http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844 (1:48:57 - 3 years ago) On March 11, '08 - "a new documentary was broadcast on French television. The gigantic bio-tech corporation Monsanto is now threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years" &

Jump On Board!
“Eat-In” at the FDA for GMO Labeling and Food Democracy- April 8th, 2013, All Day (8am-6pm)
Food And Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
5100 Paint Branch Parkway College Park, MD

There have been “Sit-Ins” and “Be-Ins,” but there has never been an “Eat-In” at the Food And Drug Administration before. The purpose of the FDA is to “protect and promote” the health of Americans. Instead, Americans are being kept in the dark about the foods they are eating.

In 2012, over a million people signed the "Just Label It" petition for GMO labeling and over 6 million Californians voted for honest labels, but the FDA has failed to act. There have been two petitions on President Barack Obama’s “We The People” petition website that have surpassed the signature threshold required for a response. But instead of answering the sincere concerns of the American people, there has been only silence.

What: Eat-in for GMO Labeling at the FDA, Stone Soup Style. Jump on an action-bound bus from your region to the FDA! Pack a picnic, bring a bowl, spoon, & mug, and gather an arm full of (vegetarian) ingredients from your region to add to the GMO-Free “Stone Soup” were going to be cooking up. Come enjoy a day of sunshine with a picnic-style protest. Are YOU hungry for some food democracy?

Where: Sidewalk outside of the Food And Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway College Park, MD 20740. Located across the street from the College Park Metro Station (Green Line).

When: April 8th 2013, 8am-6pm - All Day!
On Monday April 8th, we’ll head to the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied nutrition, to face down the institution that chooses Monsanto’s industrial interests over public health. Join this historic event to make our voice heard and to begin to take back our food system. Come before work, come for lunch, come after work! We'll be done with the “Eat-In” by sundown.

How You Can Join:
1.) Show up on April 8! Buses and vans will be transporting people from around the East Coast. (Regional transporatation info below)

2.) Volunteer! Sign up to volunteer HERE or to have our organizers help organize a van from your area HERE.

3.) Tell someone else! RSVP on Facebook, share the event page with your network, & send reminders as we get closer to the date.

For more information visit Occupy-Monsanto.com or contact StoneSoup@Occupy-Monsanto.com.

Bring your veggies and we’ll see you at the FDA!

State

North Carolina
Contact: AshevilleFDAbus@occupy-monsanto.com or
boonencFDAbus@occupy-monsanto.com to connect with folks traveling from NC.
Register HERE

West Virginia
Contact: MorgantownFDAbus@occupy-monsanto.com
to connect with folks traveling from WV.

Re. "Monsatan", a timely bump & I quote "In 2012, over a million people signed the "Just Label It" petition for GMO labeling and over 6 million Californians voted for honest labels, but the FDA has failed to act. There have been two petitions on President Barack Obama’s “We The People” petition website that have surpassed the signature threshold required for a response. But instead of answering the sincere concerns of the American people, there has been only silence."

The Article makes an important point in that it states that "court action becomes a privilege, not a right". So one option MUST be to pursue through the courts this violation of our legal rights (and any other, this ain't the 1st time corps have rigged legal immunity)

And of course I maintain we must continue protests, boycotts, petitions, phone calls etc.

I can clearly see it.When all the other corporations have finally finished with us,we then front the Monsanto conveyor belt to be made into Soylent Green biscuits to be distributed to the rest of those living on each Tuesday.

The problem is not Monsanto per se - indeed, it is a rare spot of light to see an industry dominated by a corporation still run from the U.S. Rather, I would say it is with our system of "intellectual property" which, in every way, tends to favor large corporations over small inventors, and by its nature tramples on the farmer in his field. What we need is a different way to make research and development a profitable enterprise that does not require people to give up their rights.

We have reached a level of communication technology where it is actually feasible for every individual person filing a tax return to pay a surcharge, equal in aggregate to what is now paid in copyright and patent royalties, and specify which independent funding organizations he would like to disburse this money. These organizations could then do so, based on the merits of the technology, not on the volume of sales. So a company developing a new way to modify plants would be rewarded by organizations that judge the research worthwhile; also one that develops herbicide resistance, also one which carefully develops strains using only "natural" methods of selective breeding guided by genetic data. And we'd each be free to put down our money on the idea we like. There would no longer be metering of the quantity used - a farmer could grow a GMO crop (or a crop that receives stray pollen from a neighboring field) without needing to pay anyone. With such reforms, the worthy pursuit of genetic improvements in agricultural production could be pursued by small companies or independent inventors on an even footing, with no need to cross-license patents. In the end, it would be the taxpayers and those they choose to represent their funds, not lawsuits, making the call about who receives funding.

You should spend your time pretending you have some friends in the world.

OWS needs activists. Not pretenders. You are doing what the 1% do, by manufacturing consent. You've already been busted for doing it, and you're still doing it, you dickhead. You think we don't all see you doing it? What a cockhead you are, if you don't think we all see you voting for yourself.

Yes - if copoRAT screwing of the workers and the economy does not kill us - then their altered food will. I mean how stupid is it for - one thing - to make seeds that you can not get viable seed from for a new crop? Get every one growing that - and if no viable seed is kept in many locations for safety - well it is just possible that the manufacturer of sterile offspring seed could make much of our food disappear in some sort of industrial accident. It will also allow them to charge what ever they want for seed to make a single crop ( can you say priceless? )

Then their is the problem of the fact of growing poison crops to keep the insects at bay - Ummm - I am pretty sure that that kind of thing is hazardous for other life as well - Like Human Life.

Then don't respond to them. Make a comment ( positive comment ) for a healthier world for all and leave it at that. Those who want to - will look at the comment and take it for what it is worth - or they will look at the commenter and disregard the comment.

Example : Trashy will never get approval from me as he/she/it(?) has burned itself repeatedly - so anything trashy says is suspect of being a new strategy of BS.